Green roofing: more than a Philly trend

A green roof has the best of both worlds: the charm of a country meadow and a top-notch Philadelphia view.

roofmeadow.wordpress.com

Unless your name is Godzilla, you (probably) can’t see the tops of the multi-story buildings when strolling the streets of Philadelphia. What’s nestled atop almost a hundred roofs of the Travel + Leisure-deemed 6th dirtiest city in America starts with “gr” and ends with “een.”

The Philadelphia Water Department has record of 94 green roofs currently existing in the city, totaling to about 19 acres – that’s a little over 14 football fields. As you may have guessed, green roofs are covered in vegetation – vegetation that soaks up stormwater, reducing the volume of runoff into our sewage system.

Within our sewage system, the average age of the wastewater lines is about 100 years old. Some working pipes date back to the early 1800s. Whether age is the culprit or not, reports of flooding and water main breaks make headlines during any given rainstorm.

Soaking water isn’t all they do. Green roofs provide buildings with insulation, and homes for some of PA’s finest birds and wildlife. And the extra oxygen the vegetation emits can only do this city good.

But a roof isn’t technically considered “green” by simply setting down a few potted plants. Green roofs look like a suburban backyard. After installing a waterproof lining, grass and plants are sown to do the extent of the eco-friendly magic.

Share this article

Brittany Hahn is a Temple University graduate with a BA in Journalism. She interns at Action News, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, and has previously written for other news sources including WIDK and Philadelphia Neighborhoods. In second grade, a classmate called her a "tree-hugger," which led her here -- an Examiner -- scoping out the latest in green living news.
Follow her on Twitter to read her articles as soon as they go live: @Brittany_L_Hahn.